A World of Stars ➳ A Zodiac Story

Chapter Seven: "Dreams and Lessons"

Sagittarius woke up with a start, gasping for breath. She had had a nightmare, but she couldn't remember it now. She looked around the room and stopped as she saw Taurus sitting on her bed and rocking back and forth, a look of pure terror on her face. Capricorn sat next to her silently, comforting her by wrapping her arms around Taurus like a shield, although she looked quite uncomfortable. Capricorn turned to Sagittarius with a look of confusion. Sagittarius pointed to the corner of the room and walked over.

A minute later Capricorn joined her as Taurus sniffled quietly on her bed. They jumped as Gemini snuck up on them with Aries in tow, "Why is Taurus crying?" she whispered, glancing worriedly at the sniffling girl.

"I don't know, she said that she had some sort of nightmare. Something about demons?" Capricorn explained, however, it was obvious she didn't understand what she was saying herself.

"I'll talk to her about it," Aries butted in confidently, "Should we tell Libra?" she asked,

"Obviously," Capricorn said, rolling her eyes, Aries stuck out her tongue immaturely as Sagittarius walked to Libra's bed.

"Hey," Aries said softly as she sat down next to a shivering Taurus. "I heard about the nightmare," Taurus looked at her as tears left her puffy and red eyes. Aries shifted backward as Taurus jumped up.

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND," she shouted all of a sudden, making everyone jump at her change of tone, "It wasn't a dream, nightmare, whatever. All of you were there! I remember it clearly. We were swimming in the pool and I saw a figure so I ran into the woods. You guys followed me and there was a demon and then, and then-" Taurus paused to take a breath, but before she could start talking again Libra, who was awake now, interrupted.

"Taurus, this never happened, after swimming we all came back up and went to sleep," She said patiently, nobody saw the look of worry cross her face as she fiddled with something in her pocket, "How about we all go to sleep and talk about this tomorrow? We need the rest, tomorrow lessons start." Libra suggested as the girls nodded. Taurus looked around and sighed in agreement as she lay down and pulled the blanket to her chin, she immediately closed her eyes, blocking them out.

Finally, everyone was in their beds, after casting quite a few worried glances towards the hunched up Taurus. Gemini snored softly as Sagittarius whispered something in her sleep, something about driving to Hawaii. Capricorn laughed at Sagittarius's nonsensical blabbering and turned and to climb up to her bed when someone tugged lightly and the hem of her shirt.

She looked down and saw Taurus looking at her with wide scared eyes. "Can you sleep with me?" she asked, her voice sounding like a three-year-old. Capricorn gave an inward groan but climbed into Taurus's bed and gave her an awkward pat on the back.

Soon Taurus was asleep, the tears still staining her chubby cheeks. Capricorn got up to go to her bed, it was too uncomfortable, just before she was about to drift into sleep she heard a rustle beneath her, "He's here," Taurus whispered as Capricorn fell into dreamworld.

Libra lay on her bed in silence, staring at Taurus with fear written across her face. She yanked something out of her pocket, a small square of white cloth, stained with bright red blood. Memories of the previous night flooded her mind as she tried to keep them out. Pictures of demons etched in her mind as her breathing slowed and she slipped into a restless sleep.

• • •

The sun poured in through the windows. Scorpio groaned and rolled onto his stomach, covering his head with a pillow to drown out the sound of his chattering roommates. "One." He started, his voice muffled by the bed, "Turn off the sun. And two." He rolled over again, "SHUT UP!" he roared.